Wednesday, April 04, 2012

For several editions Il Cinema Ritrovato has managed to gather the finest cinephiles from around the world. This year we would like to discuss, listen and share opinions on the current status of cinephilia, or what can be defined as such. We feel that the present fragility of cinema – at least cinema as we known it - makes this discussion even more urgent.

Photo: Louise Brooks in Prix de Beauté by Augusto Genina (1930)

Piazza Maggiore will host two of many unmissable events for all cinephiles: the Orchestra of Teatro Comunale di Bologna will accompany Timothy Brock’s new score to Augusto Genina’s Prix de Beauté (Louise Brooks last European role) commissioned by the Orchestre National de Lyon in cooperation with the Institut Lumière; and a brand new restoration of La grande illusion - by Studio Canal and the Cinémathèque de Toulouse.

After the Great Crash. Cinema and the 1929 Crisis

As the Wall Street Crash of 1929 changed the world, cinema registered the earthquake that followed in different ways, some of the most immediate and ‘literal’ examples were not always the most interesting ones. The aftermath of the Great Depression translated into financial crisis, unemployment, the gap between the poor and the rich growing obscenely wider and people still ‘dancing on the edge of the volcano’ as World War II was approaching.

This atmosphere produced films like Seifenblasen (Dudow), New Earth (Ivens), Man's Castle (Borzage), Hard to Handle (LeRoy), Sonnenstrahl (Fejos), Darò un millione (Camerini) and Komödie om Geld (Ophuls), as well as the Swedish Petterson och Bendel by Per-Axel Brenner, probably the first European anti-Semitic film. Julien Duvivier’s 1933 masterpiece D avid Golder - adapted by Irène Némirowsky’s novel and with the great Harry Baur – will open the series.

Photo: Man’s Castle by Frank Borzage (1933)

Ivan Pyr’ev, Mosfilm’s Enigma

Following last year’s discovery of Boris Barnet’s delightful works, we are now paying a tribute to another Soviet master of musical films, comedy and drama. Undoubtedly, some of Pyr’ev’s films, such as The Party Card or Kuban Cossacks, a colourful celebration of Kolhoz happiness, are historically ambiguous to say the least, but how can we but admire an artist who was able to represent a gigantic fraud with such a vision, musicality and humour? Mostly known for his musicals, starring his wife Marina Ladynina, Pyr’ev made several films which are in no way inferior to the more popular production by Grigorj Alexandrov (and his wife Ljubov Orlova) and reached its peak with At Six o'clock after the War (1944), one of the most extraordinary films on the Second World War. Pyr’ev certainly worked for the regime but he certainly was no second rate director.

He was genuinely interested in the national folklore and in the ‘classics’ and had an eye for entertainment. At his best, like in the colour film Song of Siberia, Pyr’ev was a true poet. This programme is curated by Olaf Möller.

Alma Reville, wife of Alfred Hitchcock, was a major influence on his work but she also had a filmmaking career of her own, both before and after their marriage in 1926. She started as editor's assistant and continuity girl and was senior to her future husband when they met at the Famous-Players-Lasky studio in Islington in the early 1920s. Alma was Assistant Director on Hitch’s first solo film, The Pleasure Garden, and he proposed on the boat home from Germany. Alma worked on nearly all of her husband’s films, either credited or more informally - they were famously spent their evenings discussing the day’s filming and refining their work.

Alma had a particular talent for continuity, editing and story structure and this is evident in the films she made with her husband like Murder! (1930) and those she made independently of her husband such as The Consta nt Nymph (1928),The First Born (1928 ), After the Verdict (1929). This programme is curated by Bryony Dixon (British Film Institute National Archive).

In the United States and Western Europe, the transition to sound was rapid and practically complete by around 1930. In Japan, the process was slower and more gradual. Japan’s silent films were routinely accompanied by speech from a live narrator, the benshi, and early experiments with direct sound, were in progress as early as the mid-1920s. But sound films did not form the majority until 1936, and silents continued to be made until the outbreak of World War II. This retrospective, showing over two years, will explore the rich cinema of the transitional era, with a particular focus on the creative uses to which Japanese filmmakers put the emerging sound technology.

From acknowledged masters such as Kenji Mizoguchi to neglected artists like Yasujiro Shimazu and Sotoji Kimura, filmmakers responded creatively to the challenges and opportunities of sound, producing a rich mixture of part-talkies, documentaries, musicals, and dramas united by their determination to exploit the new possibilities of sound cinema. This programme is curated by Alexander Jacoby and Johan Nordström, in collaboration with the National Film Center of Tokyo.

Photo: Namiko by Eizo Tanaka (1932) (From the National Film Centre of Tokyo)

After the cliffhanging ending of Rainbow Orchid Volume 2, the exciting conclusion about the search for The Rainbow Orchid has been released April 2, 2012, in Volume 3! Set in the golden era of the late 1920s, Rainbow Orchid is a beautifully illustrated and detailed story about the search for the mysterious flower that takes the reader from the streets of England to high mountain passes, deep into the unknown. It's an adventure that will keep you looking over your shoulder to who may be following you next.

Garen's engaging ensemble of characters, surround Julius Chancer, as he takes silent film star, Lily Lawrence and others, on a quest to find the mysterious orchid to help save Lily's father from total ruin from the evil Urkaz Grope. But we learn, Grope isn't the only one interested in this rare wonder. And with Grope's evil and determined assistant, Evelyn Crow, anything is bound to happen.

Since it's release, The Rainbow Orchid has been a favorite with young and old alike, with fans around the world. It has also been added to many library collections, as well. Garen Ewing's intense research adds depth and dimensions to his story, you don't find in every comic or graphic novel.

If you love big adventure, filled with travel, steeped in history and intrigue, you should check out The Rainbow Orchid today at Garen's official Rainbow Orchid site. Volumes 1, 2 and 3 are available at many online shops under graphic novels and/or comics, some with free shipping worldwide. Special signed and sketched editions can be bought directly from Garen Ewing at The Rainbow Orchid.

For more about The Rainbow Orchid visit Garen's official Rainbow Orchid site. Also, check out my extensive interview with Garen, with The Rainbow Orchid fan page, complete with links covering RO since the release of Volume One.

Here is a ten minute video from the one hour plus auto interview.

UPDATE: If you like to get The Rainbow Orchid in the USA and not pay shipping fees, the best place to order is from Book Depository. They ship worldwide for free. Excellent deal. Currently under $10.

Updated Note April 10th: Where can I buy The Rainbow Orchid? Especially from the USA? Amazon USA has just removed The Rainbow Orchid books from current sell, after having them available since their UK release in 2009. NOW, they have placed the books into regular Amazon shopping carts and posted that The Rainbow Orchid Volume 1, 2 and 3 will not be available at AMAZON USA until October 2012! All three books are available atGaren's Rainbow Orchid shop, with special signed and sketched editions. If you just want to get the books, The Book Depository hasThe Rainbow Orchid Volume 3 (Vol. 1 and 2 are not available there) andAmazon UK has all three volumes, available. Otherwise, you will have to check ebay, for possible online purchases from varies sellers.

UPDATE - April 12, 2012 - Just received The Rainbow Orchid Volume 3 in the post this week! Beautiful publication. I can't give anything away, but it's a well paced, action filled adventure, beautifully illustrated, with some big surprises. Looking forward to getting my signed and sketched editions now! Excellent work, Garen!

UPDATE: June has been a GREAT month for The Rainbow Orchid, with a successful launch of The Rainbow Orchid Volume 3 and boxset at Stripdagen, and two excellent reviews in London The Observer, including one from comic actor and stage comic, Rhys Darby (best known as Murray Hewitt, in HBO's very funny, Flight of the Conchords.

Also, catch Garen's latest artwork for the weekly UK comic, The Phoenix. The four part series, The Bald Boy and the Dervish, with story by Ben Haggarty, appears in this week's issue #23.

Latest updates on Edna Purviance's sites, related Charlie Chaplin news and items of interest, with a sampling of my other interests. Currently working on Edna's family bio. Draft is finished, and onto the editor stage. More to come.

Charlie Chaplin DVDs

Comparison Review of the Mutual DVD Collections

Charlie Chaplin Books

Collecting Chaplin books? Check out our list and database

Hollywood Series

Kevin Brownlow and David Gill - While still available on VHS from private collections, The Hollywood Series Collection SHOULD BE on DVD, but due to copyrights, controlled by studios, etc. it is being held-up. Great series that should be saved.

Adel Gance's Napoléon and Revisiting England

Morgan vs. Morgan

Finding the alias 'Morgan Hill'

The Sea Gull "A Woman of the Sea" by Linda Wada - Charlie Chaplin's lost film production - 1926

CLICK ON IMAGE FOR DETAILS! Film starring Edna Purviance, story and direction by Josef von Sternberg: "The look of the film, revealed in these marvellous photographs, makes it all the more tragic that it was destroyed." - Kevin Brownlow, Silent Film Historian, London

Adventure Films - 2014 WAR Series

with Garen & Murray Ewing discuss 10 war films for this latest series.

Lita Hill: Apr. 1933-Jan. 2008

Edna Purviance's Grand Niece has died - see January 21, 2008 post. About Lita's interview shown in Hollywood: "...remarkable interviews with Edna's great niece, herself quite the interesting lady. A nontraditional view of Edna, who did NOT pine away and die after her affair with Chaplin ended, but went out and lived a good full life and married the man of her dreams. I hope this one gets some walking money."

Discovered Films with Edna!

Edna Purviance's Private Life! See January 17th, 2007 special post!

Jack Squire's films part of FDR Documentary

PBS Producer, John Schwally, will be using some of Jack Squire's discovered films for upcoming documentary about FDR. (Jack was Edna's husband.)